jonreagan

Black Gold or Yellow Gold?

I don't know if this angle was covered--in the lengthy and great list of comments--but having the presumptive Democratic nominee consistently trashing NAFTA isn't helpful either. The oil sands of Canada have vast resources, and Canada is currently the largest supplier of energy our country. After the dustup over NAFTA prior to the Ohio Primary, Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson drily noted:

"Knowlegdeable observers should inform Mr. Obama that our country is currently the largest supplier of energy to the United States."

That Barack Obama wouldn't be aware of this tells me that having been through 8 years of the amateur hour, we're in for another four at least. The Senator's clumsy attempt to assure the Canadians that he supported NAFTA (he was against it before he was for it, I guess) was painful to watch.

Suffice it to say that if we manage to antagonize even the Canadians, we'll have pretty much alienated the entire world. Moreover, given the way Nancy Pelosi torpedoed the Colombia Trade Pact (taking care of her big labor buddies) we're well on our way to doing the same thing in Latin America--unwise given the large oil reserves off Brazil. Sorry if this sounds political--it's actually coming from a centrist Democrat.